By NPR
Adultery is no longer a crime in New York.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed off on repealing a 1907 law prohibiting the act.
New York’s penal law previously said that “a person is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
It was considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a jail sentence of up to three months.
“This New York law is an excellent example of the legal doctrine “desuetude,” which is the idea that some laws become so outdated and obsolete that they become unenforceable as a matter of social principle. As we see in New York, some lawmakers recognize that those laws no longer serve a purpose and will overturn them. Importantly, Governor Hochul’s recent act has no effect on the state’s marital laws, which still allow spouses to allege adultery as a basis for divorce. In other words, there are still legal consequences for committing adultery.”
-Ashley Hutton, Rose Law Group family law attorney
